sometimes you start your morning off with breakfast... and other times you start with a marriage proposal

Hello again!
So these past two days A LOT has happened. I should have almost blogged these two days seperately, but it has been busy.
On the 4th a group of us went to another resort this time it was the white sands which is even more beautiful then the first one we went to a few days before that. This one looked more Africa style, with these hut like umbrella sections with lounge chairs along the beach. We saw a few gentlemen actually making some of them. They are made out of dry grasses and its beautiful.
Oops! Hold the phones! I forgot to mention a monumental moment of the morning. Remember those cool guards I talked about in the last blog? Well in the morning I was leaving my house and heading over to the main house and I always say "Jambo" to our guards and "habari" or sometimes I say "Mambo" if they say it to me first. Very nice gentemen. This particular morning the guard came right up to me and was trying to teach me another response to Mambo. He taught me my next word: Powa. It means "a-ok" as he told me.
#7: Powa: a'okay(in response to habari)
haha It's another response instead of njema(which means good). Thanking him I turned to go, but he was not finished talking to me. Infact I received my first marriage proposal. haha he said to me "mimi ataka wewe"(I think I spelt that right). I quickly wrote it down in my notebook that I have been writing down all the swahili words I have learned thus far and decided I would ask Maria and her husband what he said. He repeated himself a few times and started to gesture what he was trying to say. He pointed to me, then himself and then maked a sleeping sign. I started to laugh and it quickly got awkward. I said Kwaheri and skittered away. I confirmed with Maria's husband he was baaaaasically was saying he liked me or wanted me... he told me I just got proposed to. haha I couldn't help but laugh. Maria's husband quickly taught me some phrases to respond to him with if he asks again! haha
Phrase #1: Hawezi Kana: not a chance in hell
Phrase #2: niki chia: are you out of your mind
haha Good eh? He also taught me how to say yes and no
#8: apana: no
#9: ndio: yes
I love spending my time talking to Maria and her husband because they give me a lot of words and make sure I pronounce them properly. For about an hour I continued talking to them and I learned a TON of new words so here goes!
#10 Jina: name
#11 Yako: Your[s]
#13 Baya: not good(to use in response to habari)
#14 hivi-hivi: so-so(another one to respond to habari with)
#15 wiwi: you
Phrase #3: Jina lako ninani: what is your name
Phrase #4: pole sana: I am very sorry(use when you hear bad news or if you hurt someone)
#16 Karibu: welcome(used to say "welcome to my home" or when someone says thank you you will say it back like "you're welcome")
Phrase #4: Swahili yangu kidogo: I know a little swahili
#17 Mara haba: I'm okay(you have to say this is someone says to you "shikamo". you can't use njema because it doesnt go together. you always say mara haba)
He then taught me how to say "how are you" in a more beautiful sophisticated way!
#18 Uhali gani- how are you
#19 Bei gani: how much(this is for when i go to the market to barter with the people for a fair price. apparently if i say this in swahili they will think i know what i am doing there and won't rip me off lol)
After that I got a quick lesson on how to barter with the people in the street markets! We will see if it works!!
They also taught me how the letters are pronounced:
U: "you"
A: "ahh"
E: "A"
i: "E"
G: "ga"(like the g in girl)
J: "J"(like the j in joke)
Okay, so back to the resort. We spent a long time at the resort and when ordering lunch we found what was on the menu was not what we got. I ordered a chicken burger and got a beef burger(as did another intern). Two other interns ordered ham,tomato, and cheese sandwiches and got tomato and cheese sandwiches. haha it was amusing!
For the first time I stepped foot into the Indian ocean and man was it warm! It was warmer than the pool we were swimming in! (Picture)<--- if this blog ever lets me post it!
So I was told to put sunscreen on my eyelids cause there is nothing worse than burning them. I applied and laid down in the sun. We used the pool to cool off after being in the sun for an hour or so and then would head back to the sun. [repeat]. Unfortunately, after the 3rd time of going into the pool I started to cry. A really painful cry. I had the servers and bartenders staring at me! And this time not just because I am a blonde white female. haha the sunscreen got in my eyes and buuuurrrrrrrnnnnned. Another intern gave me eyedrops and it relieved me for about... ohh I don't know... 20 seconds. The stinging came back full force and intensified. The poor servers thought I was crying. That or thinking I was some stupid Canadian that was crying for no reason? Hmm.. who knows! It finally stopped and i swore off the sunscreen eyelid routine! I stuck to sunglasses for the rest of the day!
After the resort we taxied home, got dressed up for dinner and went to a high end restaurant to meet with other interns that are out here working with the sustainable cities NGO and the operators from my NGO placement: Women Fund Tanzania.
I don't know about anyone I was with, but I felt a bit weird going to high end restaurants knowing I spend more money on one meal than a high percent of people here spent in a week or a month.
Did you know on average teachers here get paid 300,000 TSH! Thats about $200.00 USD. A YEAR! Okay... now that you hate me for going to this dinner... haha :)
It was a great dinner. I had calamari and peperani! Italian restaurant! Oh so good. The two representatives from Women Fund Tanzania were Brian and Mary. Olive and Nikki were the two interns that came from the sustainable cities organization. I had a great conversation with Brian who discussed his education in South Africa. He has such a passion for this organization, seeking to empower the marginalized women in Tanzania. Wow! It was such a big dinner table I was not close enough to Mary or the other two guest interns to get into personal conversations with them. I did manage to listen to parts of conversation, but I am not too worried as I will be working close with all of them in the near future. Both organizations are in the same building!
The dinner ended so late! 10:30pm is when we got home. At least we missed the traffic! Make sure you watch for a blog on fun facts about Africa in comparison to Canada. A little taste of it is this... Toilets here flush with the forces of tidal waves... I kid you not. If you flush while sitting.. your bottom will get soaked! On the contrary... the showers drizzle out and what took 1 minute(shampooing my hair) will take about 3 with the low water pressure.... Anyhow, more fun facts to come!
I know that for my internship requirements Cherie does not want to hear about my emotional issues in my journal, so Cherie you can skip over this section:
I came home from dinner very sleepy and it made me a little cranky. I really do not know why I was feeling that way, but I thought I'd log onto my email and look for an email response from family...
Sooooo my netbook was dead like dinner. I was annoyed cause I had forgotten to close it down. I share a room with Deanna and we only have one plug-in in our room... and Deanna's laptop was dead too. She had beaten me to the plug in so there I sat... irritated that I left my laptop open and let it die, tired from a long day and really wanting to hear from someone back home.
Finally, I sucked it up and went downstairs to plug it in, only to have my wifi not work. I sat there fiddling with it and getting angry. I returned to my room and thankfully our plug was available, so I plug it in. What do you know... it decided to stop working for me. ME! How lucky was I? With the very small amount of battery I had charged from the time downstairs I logged onto my email and there was no email from my family. I started to laugh at how irritated I was as it was the only thing left to do at this point, and then found my Studentaid email telling me I had my appendix7 approved and the money was on the way. That lightened my mood and so... just after midnight I passed out... forgetting to set my alarm for my 6:30am jog...

Its late again tonight. I'll post May 5th tomorrow early morning hopefully before we head out to the market. I don't want to miss my jog tomorrow morning! We are doing it at 6am this time...

Thanks for reading and talk to you all soon!
Moriah